Being a full-time tarot reader gives me the opportunity to connect strongly with humanity and all the fears and hopes that arise during a human life. This includes questions around death. I don’t connect with the dead for many reasons, one being that it cannot be proven that the story I share is from one who is dead, or the strong memory of the living person sitting opposite me.

Death continues to be a very strange thing for me to contemplate. I have no need for hard and fast theories around this theme. I am content with the mystery, yet understand that the more I meditate and talk openly about death, the more content I feel with life.

I spent four years volunteering at a hospice, and facing death on a regular basis helped me relax around this huge concept and what it might entail for me one day. Bearing witness to the end of people’s mortal existence changed my relationship with myself: I found it easier to stop neurotically worrying about aspects of my life. The dying did indeed teach me to live.

To this day I have sat with three bodies – two who were dear to me. They looked so empty without their life force. Seeing that helped me consider that they were now a part of everything and that I am inhaling the energy that was them in every moment. There is so much to inhale!

Existentialism is a constant in my life. It really gets me sometimes. The idea proposed in the movie ‘The Matrix’ that we are all batteries for aliens while our minds live in a computer game is to me far more plausible than the concept of a god.

But I prefer to live without committing to an idea. Even though I have had experiences that point to a clear definition, I choose to keep connecting to the mystery.

It is true that I dreamt I was flying into golden light with my friend Emma at the exact moment she was dying unexpectedly. Though I am aware that the unenlightened mind can only grasp at these experiences.

Every day when I meditate and particularly when I’m at a 10 Day Vipassana meditation course, I am reminded of the impermanence of everything. I will dissolve one day, as will all those I love. I can only hope that I stay committed to personal growth so that I can achieve what I am capable of.

Editor's note: Sarah Barry AKA Psychic Sarah has been working as a full-time tarot reader since 2003, and is highly regarded for her work. Her colourful bicycle has become an Inner West icon and can be sighted most days on the streets of Newtown, Sydney, where her tarot room is based.

If you wish to read about Sarah's psychic dream about Emma, click here or scroll to the bottom of the page.

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That concept of the dying teaching us to live...I love that. I wonder if our rituals surrounding death and dying were more connected and open, if we in turn could be more connected to our living? - Kirstin Guenther (Facebook)